Edward Norton’s ‘My Own Man’ Documentary To Premiere On Netflix

My Own Man, the Edward Norton-executive produced original documentary, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, has been acquired by Netflix. The film will premiere on March 6 and will be available in all territories where Netflix is available.

David Sampliner wrote, produced and directed the docu, a personal account of his experiences when he learns he’s going to be the father of a baby boy. He fears he must “man up” and finally embrace the latent masculinity he’s rejected all his life. But as he immerses himself in a strange new world of masculine ideals, including vocal lessons, warrior weekends and hunting, he realizes all roads lead back to his fraught relationship with his father.

“We’re proud to be working with Edward Norton and David Sampliner on this film,” said Lisa Nishimura, VP Original Documentary and Comedy at Netflix. “Intensely personal and yet universally relatable, My Own Man is both an exploration of the new masculinity and an examination of age-old differences between fathers and sons.”

Norton is a friend of Sampliner’s and appears in the film. “My Own Man is as deeply personal as filmmaking can get,” Norton said. “You rarely see an artist document their own personal experience with such candor and simultaneously offer such deep insights into the very universal struggle to communicate within a family. It’s a film that lies within the emotional spectrum of great drama.”

Added Sampliner, “When I started making this film, I wanted to document an experience I shared with a lot of my peers: becoming a husband and father in a time when the roles for men were changing so dramatically. But in the course of shooting over seven years, I realized that discovering how to be a 21st century dad meant coming to terms with my own father. I’m hoping that by watching a portrait of my family, audiences will find new ways of understanding their own.”

Sampliner’s first documentary feature, Dirty Work (co-directed with Tim Nackashi), screened at the Sundance Film Festival, won Best Documentary Feature at the Atlanta Film Festival, aired on the Sundance Channel and is now available on various digital platforms. He co-directed Art, Architecture, And Innovation, a documentary about the history of the Guggenheim Museum broadcast on WNET Channel 13 and now on permanent exhibition at the Museum.

My Own Man is a Sixteen Tons Production in association with Class 5 Films. William Migliore, Lisa Nishimura and Adam Del Deo also serve as executive producers. Rachel Libert is co-producer.